Tea Party Targets Scott Brown

Conservative Republicans and Tea Party advocates are on the hunt for a primary challenger for Massachusetts senator Scott Brown after his reaching across the aisle to support several pieces of legislation this year, including the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

Brown, a Republican, was chosen in a special election in January to assume the seat held by late U.S. senator Edward Kennedy, who died in 2009. He is up for full election in 2012.

Aside from his vote to repeal the military's ban on gay and lesbian service members, Salonreports Brown has drawn the ire of conservatives for his support of the New Start treaty, Wall Street reform over the summer, and a jobs bill earlier this year.

"I think that there will be a primary challenge," Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, told The Boston Globe last Friday. "There's enough of an underground movement in the Tea Party movement as seeing him as not being conservative enough. There probably will be multiple people who attempt to run against him."

Brown is still popular in his state and polling stronger than senior senator John Kerry, according to the report.